Eternal youth
(An essay by Eschaton)
In accordance with the minimum total potential energy principle, the universe converts its gravitational potential energy into its gravitational binding energy and its kinetic energy. The product of the binding energy and the kinetic energy is maximal at the absolute gravitational centre of the universe.
- The maximally bound state is known as the Bose-condensed state.
- The average kinetic energy of a system's particles is known as the system's temperature.
Therefore, the absolute gravitational centre of the universe progresses towards the state of a high-temperature Bose-condensate—Life:
... the living state is a practical realization of a Bose-condensate. [Poccia, Nicola; Ricci, Alessandro; Innocenti, Davide; Bianconi, Antonio ♦ A Possible Mechanism for Evading Temperature Quantum Decoherence in Living Matter by Feshbach Resonance Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome]
Illustration 1. Artist's conception of particles in an exotic phase of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate. Each particle in the condensate shares the same quantum-mechanical wavefunction, and so they all move as one. Particles outside the condensate move faster and in all directions. Bose-Einstein condensation has been proposed to occur among neural proteins to provide a unitary sense of conscious "self." Adapted by Dave Cantrell from original "Molecule of the Year" cover of Science (December 22, 1995) by Steve Keller. [Hameroff, Stuart ♦ Anesthesia, Consciousness and Hydrophobic Pockets]
The Bose-condensed fraction (the spirit, the soul) of an organism resides mostly in the nervous tissue. Bose-condensed ~ having zero entropy ~ young. Therefore, the youthfulness of an organism is determined by its brain-to-body mass ratio.
1) Phylogenetically (as a species), man progresses towards youthfulness (lower entropy):
Illustration 2. Homo habilis (brain volume 660 cm3), Homo erectus (brain volume 975 cm3), and Homo neanderthalensis (brain volume 1550 cm3). [Source] William Sheldon noted that cerebrotonic (ectomorphic) people have young appearance. [Source] This observation holds even for the human phylogeny—an increase in the brain volume is accompanied by rejuvenation. In the course of their evolution, humans become increasingly cerebrotonic. The intensity and the spatial resolution of the holographic morphogenetic field, generated by the brain, increases. As a result, the skin becomes more bright, fine-textured, and smooth. Why is Homo habilis so oldish? When a radically new concept appears in your head, you hurriedly write it down in a jumbled and messy form (revolutions are always jumbled and messy). Analogously, when the concept of man came into the World Spirit's head, it was hurriedly fixed in the jumbled and messy form of Homo habilis. The subsequent human evolution has been merely the elaboration of that revolutionary concept.
2) Ontogenetically (as an individual), a man progresses towards older age (higher entropy):
Illustration 3. From the age of 11.5 years in girls and 14.5 years in boys, the total cerebral volume decreases [Giedd et al., 1999]. Until the age of 24 years, this decrease is compensated by increase in the neuronal interconnectedness. After that age, the holographic morphogenetic field, generated by the brain, becomes increasingly faded and blurred, which makes the skin pallid (with dark spots), coarse-textured, and wrinkled.
3) The speed of the phylogenetic rejuvenation is exponentially accelerating. By the end of the year 2012, the speed of the phylogenetic rejuvenation will become equal to the speed of ontogenetic aging. Eternal youth.
Most of you (again I'm using the plural form of the word) are likely to be around to see the Singularity. The expanding human life span is another one of those exponential trends. In the eighteenth century, we added a few days every year to human longevity; during the nineteenth century we added a couple of weeks each year; and now we're adding almost a half a year every year. With the revolutions in genomics, proteomics, rational drug design, therapeutic cloning of our own organs and tissues, and related developments in bio-information sciences, we will be adding more than a year every year within ten years. [Kurzweil, Raymond ♦ The Law of Accelerating Returns Published on KurzweilAI.net March 7, 2001] [Graph]
The brain-to-body mass ratio is a rough estimate of the possible intelligence of an organism. Infants have higher brain-to-body mass ratios compared with adults. That is why humans are "paedomorphic chimpanzees":
Illustration 4. A chimpanzee adult and a chimpanzee infant. From a 1926 study by the Swiss zoologist and palaeontologist Adolf Naef.
The informational progress of mankind is exponentially accelerating:
- In 2005, information was doubling every 36 months. [Source]
- In June 2008, information was doubling every 11 months. [Source]
- On 4 August 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said: "Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003." [Source]
- By the end of 2010, information will be doubling every 11 hours. [Source]
As a result, the evolutionary pressure for youthfulness (essentially, for higher brain-to-body mass ratios) is exponentially strengthening:
The terrorists in al-Qaeda seek to destroy Western culture. They needn't bother. Give Western culture 30 years and it will collapse under the weight of its incontinence nappies.
The West's celebration of youth has infected its culture like a deadly virus. Too many members of generation X go childless as they perpetuate a youthful lifestyle of attachment-free independence.
It's understandable. Today youth is celebrated by the mass media like never before.
Sportswear, soft drinks, junk food and zippy inner-city cars are made by corporations that survive by selling their wares to young, single people with disposable income.
The commercial media have no choice but to deliver a younger audience to these corporations. Youth lifestyle is subsequently promoted by the media as the pinnacle of Western culture.
The lifestyle of the young is seductive. It's not surprising that X-men want to play the never-ageing Peter Pan and X-women choose the capable romantic, Wendy Darling, as their role model.
I call them "Neverlanders."
[Ferguson, Tim ♦ Cult of youth spells end of Western civilisation The Age, March 4, 2004]
By the end of the year 2012 at the latest, this evolutionary pressure will overcome all barriers currently preventing mankind's transformation into an eternally young species.
